160 A Special Seed

It was late afternoon when the four returned to Damonia. On the carriage ride back to the college Jayde grilled Nova, Ash, and Raven over the living conditions of the smaller families living in the Lower Realm. The three were quite happy to answer Jayde's questions as they assumed that Jayde came from one of the hidden clans and had little knowledge of how mages lived outside of her clan.

After her meeting with Maianna, Jayde had been mulling over the idea of creating new products for the lower class citizens of Doha, similar to what she had done on Telia. The one thing her life in the Federation had taught her, was just how powerful money could make a person or organization, the corporations in the Federation were proof of that.

That evening over dinner Jayde was distracted and paid little attention to Takara and Lucia, she was thinking about her conversation with the three on her way back to school. From what she had learned the lower class citizens in the Lower Realm really had a hard time struggling to survive. Since the mages in Doha relied solely on magic to do everything, even something as simple as irrigating their crops was carried out by a water mage.

The larger clans and nobles relied on their slave force for everything, but small families couldn't afford slaves and had to do everything themselves, so something as simple as farming ended up being a herculean task with every family member having to contribute their skills to keep their small farms producing.

Jayde had an inkling of an idea, but she wanted to see just how the mages of Doha took to her new clothing line before she implemented it, but I am going to need more gold, she thought. She still had many of the metal ores stored that had been left by the old man, it should be just enough for her to raise the capital needed, but she didn't want to sell them just yet since she was sure that would bring too much attention. She decided to give it a couple of months before approaching the Aeris Auction House again.

Jayde gave Lucia one of the cakes delivered that afternoon before she left for the evening, she ignored that strange looks that Lucia sent her way when she walked over the stack of cake boxes stored in her small lounge.

Seeing that Takara was sulking, Jayde gave him two of the cakes to make up for ignoring him during supper, then storing the rest of the cakes into her spatial ring she teleported to her dimensional space. Reiko and Yinxin happily greeted Jayde when she arrived. After giving them each some of the cakes she had bought, Jayde handed the rest over to Isha.

There was no way she was going to give all the cakes to Reiko since the greedy shadowbeast would most likely eat all of them, then he would complain bitterly about having a stomach ache, Jayde had already gone through that trauma before on Telia and had learned her lesson well.

"Oh, here is the seed that you wanted," Jayde said, handing over the small glass container to Isha.

Her forehead furrowed as she asked: "Why did you want it?"

Taking the small glass container from Jayde, Isha scrutinized the seed.

Looking up, he gave Jayde a huge smile. "Damn girl, but you are lucky," he said. "I wasn't quite sure if this seed was the real deal, but it is. Those fools have no idea what they let go."

Jayde's right eyebrow shot up. "Just what is this seed?"

"This my dear girl is a hamadryad tree, I thought they were extinct," Isha said triumphantly. "How the hell did it end up in some ancient ruin?" he mumbled.

"A hamadryad tree?"

Isha nodded. "A hamadryad tree is a living spirit tree, before the sundering, there use to be a whole forest of them, but the sundering destroyed the forest," Isha said sadly. "Hamadryad's are bonded to their trees if the tree dies so do they. If we can awaken the hamadryad then just maybe we can return the hamadryad's to Doha, but in the meantime, if this hamadryad awakens, your herb garden will really benefit from having a hamadryad tree."

Jayde gazed at the seed in the glass container, will this world ever stop surprising me, she thought. Pointing to the seed Jayde asked, "just how will that benefit my herbs?"

Isha's mouth curved into a gentle smile as he stroked the glass container softly with his finger. "Hamadryads can increase the Qi around them, as well as enrich the soil with Qi, any plants grown near them have an abundance of spiritual Qi. They also tend to their own gardens. I guess one could say that hamadryads are or they were Doha's ultimate gardeners. Their loss was devastating to the planet."

"Oh, so how do we go about awakening this spirit?"

"Blood," Isha answered succinctly.

"Blood?"

"Hmm, the only way to awaken this hamadryad is for you to bond with it, by giving it some of your blood."

"Bond with it?" Jayde was starting to feel like a stuck record. "Isha, don't tell me we are talking about another contract," she said with dismay giving Isha a flat stare.

Isha let a short bark of laughter. "No, nothing like the contract that you have with Reiko and Yinxin, hamadryad's aren't like spirit beasts, you can't contract them, but you can create a symbiont relationship with them."

"Symbiont relationship? Just what are we talking about here?" Jayde asked hesitantly.

Seeing the wary look on Jayde's face, Isha quickly reassured her. "It's nothing harmful or bad, just that you will share some of your life force and magic with the hamadryad, and in return, thehamadryad will tend to your garden and create a rich Qi environment for you."

Reassured Jayde then remember Isha had mentioned being able to return the hamadryad's back to Doha, but she only had one seed.

"Isha how do hamadryad breed?"

"Like any tree, they will produce seeds," Isha said quietly, fighting to keep the laughter out of his voice.

"Oh, then does that mean I will have to bond with each tree?" Jayde asked, wondering if she was about to be drained of her blood to awaken all those future hamadryads.

"Only the first ten or so," Isha said. "After that, the soil and Qi that they produce will be enough to awaken the rest."

"Okay, then should we give it a go?" asked Jayde, "by the way, just how much blood are we talking about here?"

"Initially half a cup of your blood will do, we will have to soak the seed in your blood until it sprouts, once it sprouts we can then place it in the soil in your herb garden. You will then just need to give it a couple of drops of your blood a day until the spirit awakens."

"Alrighty then," Jayde said, retrieving a cup from her spatial ring. Handing the cup over to Isha, Jayde then removed one of her daggers, slicing the palm of her left hand, she then held her bleeding hand over the cup, Jayde then fisted her hand to force her cut to bleed faster. In a short time, the cup was half filled, Jayde then removed a small healing potion from her spatial ring, which she poured over her open cut. Once the gash in her hand was healed Jayde cleaned her hands.

While Jayde was washing her hands, Isha broke open the glass container, picking up the seed carefully he then dropped it into the blood. "Now we just have to wait and see if we are successful," Isha said, gently cradling the cup.

Just then Yinxin and Reiko walked over, the two of them had been so busy stuffing their faces with cakes that they hadn't paid any attention when Isha and Jayde walked off, it was only when the scent of Jayde's blood permeated the air that they came over to investigate.

"What's going on?" Reiko demanded belligerently.

"By the gods, is that want I think it is?" Yinxin exclaimed.

Holding the cup out protectively, Isha showed it to Yinxin.

"It's a hamadryad," he said reverently.

"By the gods!" Yinxin whispered. "My grandmother told me about them, I never dreamed I would ever see one."

"Hamadryad? But aren't they extinct?" Reiko asked his voice filled with suspicion, he was not happy seeing half a cup filled with Jayde's blood.

"I thought so too," Isha said, "but Jayde was lucky enough to find one at the auction."

"Jayde you are surely blessed by the gods," Yinxin said her voice laced with amusement.

"Why it is floating in Jayde's blood?" Reiko demanded. He was upset that Isha and Yinxin were going on about some stupid seed and ignoring the important part, which was that there was half a cup filled with Jayde's blood.

Isha then explained how the hamadryad needed Jayde's blood and life force to awaken, when Reiko found out that Jayde needed to give the hamadryad blood every day, he objected strenuously to the whole thing. It was only after Jayde insisted that she wanted to try that he finally acceded, but he grumbled that it had better be worth it.

Touched that Reiko was so protective of her, Jayde walked over to the shadowbeast and gave him a quick hug. The three then chatted about Jayde's day. They had just finished talking about Jayde's new partnership when White arrived to collect Jayde for her training.

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